The Santa Fe Demons came out guns blazing Tuesday at home, but the Los Alamos Hilltopper boys soccer team overcame the initial push to earn an important district victory.
Santa Fe scored a goal less than a minute into the contest, but Los Alamos regrouped and outplayed the Demons at Ivan Head Stadium. Henry Steinkamp scored a pair of goals to give the Hilltoppers a 2-1 win.
Los Alamos and Santa Fe were both in need of a win to keep their hopes of a district title alive. Los Alamos, by grabbing Tuesday’s win, will still have a shot to reclaim the crown from the Capital Jaguars.
The Jaguars, however, still have the edge over the Hilltoppers by virtue of their 1-0 win at Sullivan Field Oct. 6.
Hilltopper head coach Evan Gartz said his team needed some time to adjust to the field at Ivan Head Stadium — a natural grass facility that’s considerably narrower than Sullivan Field.
“The goal woke us up,” Gartz said. “They still had some good rhythm after their goal, but we settled down and found some things that were working.”
Despite the narrow field, the Hilltoppers (11-7 overall, 4-1 in 2-4A) were able to work the ball out wide and find Steinkamp near the Santa Fe goal. Steinkamp scored goals in both halves.

The Los Alamos Hilltopper girls soccer team officially clinched their sixth consecutive District 2-4A title with its victory over the Santa Fe Demons Tuesday.
Amy Neal scored twice for Los Alamos while Meghan McDonald picked up a goal and an assist as the Hilltoppers earned a 4-1 victory over the Demons. The win put the Hilltoppers at 5-0 in District 2-4A play (14-3 overall) and put the finishing touch on their district crown.
While Los Alamos’ continued domination of 2-4A this year came as no surprise, Santa Fe (7-9 overall, 2-3 in district) gave Los Alamos as much of a run for its money in their two games as any team has done since 2007.
The last time the Hilltoppers had allowed a goal in 2-4A play was in 2006.
Late in the first half, Santa Fe’s Elena Lemus scored on a rebounded indirect kick that came from about 30 yards out toward the goal mouth to snap the Hilltoppers’ streak of 41 consecutive district shutouts.
The goal by Santa Fe made the score 2-1 at halftime. Los Alamos picked up two goals in the second half, however, to end any hope the Demons may have had for an upset. Neal and McDonald both scored in the second half, with McDonald assisting Neal on her goal and Jordan Ahlers assisting McDonald on hers.
For her effort, McDonald was given the coaches’ Player of the Game nod.

The Los Alamos Hilltopper boys and girls cross country teams posted another big showing at last weekend’s Los Lunas Invitational. Both the Hilltopper varsity squads took first in team competition, with the Hilltopper boys just narrowly missing a perfect score and the girls cruising to an 82-point victory over runner-up Santa Fe Indian School.

The eighth annual Ruby K’s Yum Run is scheduled for Oct. 27.
The Yum Run includes a 5K run/walk event and a 10K run/walk, as well as a 1K non-competitive fun run. All races start and finish at Ruby K’s on Central Avenue.
Price for participation is $30 per person for the 5K and 10K races or $90 per family and $15 per person or $35 per family for the 1K. All proceeds from the races will go to benefit LA Cares.
Entry forms are available online at rubykbagel.com or may be picked up at Ruby K’s Los Alamos Fitness Center, the YMCA or Mesa Public Library.

Tee times pushed back

Los Alamos Golf Course announced later tee times starting this week.
Due to low temperatures and frost, the first tee times of the day will be scheduled for 9 a.m. The later start times will begin Friday.
More information can be obtained by calling LAGC at 662-8139.

The Los Alamos Hilltopper volleyball team improved to 3-1 in District 2-4A play with a road win Saturday night at Capital.
After a big comeback win last Wednesday against the Española Valley Sundevils — Los Alamos trailed 2-1 but rallied to win — the Hilltoppers swept the Capital Jaguars at Edward Ortiz Gymnasium, 25-16, 26-24, 25-19.
The victory over the Jaguars wraps up the first half of the district season for the Hilltoppers, who hold a half-match lead over Española Valley and Santa Fe in the 2-4A race. The Sundevils (9-6) host Bernalillo Wednesday and travel to Santa Fe Saturday — Española Valley beat Santa Fe and Santa Fe beat Los Alamos in their first meetings.
Los Alamos (9-6 overall) has just one match this week, Saturday night at Bernalillo, but will be busy next week with an Oct. 24 contest at home against Santa Fe (7-8) and a trip to Española Valley Oct. 27.
Next week’s contests could go a long way to determining this year’s 2-4A regular season title.

Collin Stone posted a hat trick and Henry Steinkamp earned a whopping four assists as the Los Alamos Hilltopper boys soccer team rolled over the Bernalillo Spartans Saturday afternoon.
Los Alamos scored five times in the opening half as it dropped Bernalillo 9-0 at Sullivan Field.
That victory bumps the Hilltoppers up to 3-1 in District 2-4A play. The Hilltoppers have just two district contests remaining, including an Oct. 23 tilt at Capital that they will have to win for a shot at reclaiming the 2-4A championship.
The other district game is this afternoon when the Hilltoppers take on the Santa Fe Demons (11-6, 1-2). The Hilltoppers thumped the Demons 6-1 Sept. 29 at Sullivan Field.
Against Bernalillo, Stone earned his first hat trick of 2012. Stone has scored six of his eight season goals during district play, including five against the Spartans.
Along with Stone’s hat trick, Ben Stewart scored twice. Single goals were posted by Ryan Maestas, Nick Thoma, Kevin Gao and Steinkamp.
Steinkamp, one of the top playmakers in the state, had his third multi-assist game of the year with his assist total. He has dished out 12 assists this season and is second on the team with 30 points — Maestas, who had two assists Saturday, leads Los Alamos with 35 points.

One good turn might deserve another, but Jennifer Mooday was not the beneficiary of that good turn Saturday. Quite the opposite.
Mooday, a senior on the Los Alamos Hilltopper girls cross country team, was pointed in the wrong direction on one of the many loops during the first race of Saturday’s Los Lunas Invitational. Mooday, who had a sizeable lead at the time, lost out on that lead.
The bum steer may have cost Mooday an individual win at the race, hosted by the Class 4A Los Lunas Tigers, but the Hilltoppers as a team were hardly worse off for it.
Both the Hilltopper boys and girls picked up big victories at the meet. The Hilltopper girls finished with 20 points, far outdistancing runner up Santa Fe Indian School. The Hilltopper boys, meanwhile, just missed a perfect scoring, picking up 16 team points, paced by Sean Reardon’s individual victory and Nick Hill’s second place finish, less than a second behind.
Los Alamos’ boys started off the race a little too conservatively, said coaches Rob and Kathy Hipwood, but recovered well in the latter stages of the race.
Reardon and Hill were shoulder-to-shoulder through the bulk of the race, while Colin Hemez and Zak Kennison both finished within six seconds of the front-runners.

The Los Alamos Hilltopper girls soccer team walked all over the Bernalillo Spartans Saturday to start the second half of its District 2-4A season.
Los Alamos needed just 56 minutes to trump the Spartans. The Hilltoppers scored four goals in 16 minutes of the second half to win 10-0 at Sullivan Field Saturday.
The win improves Los Alamos’ mark in district to 4-0 (13-3 overall). Los Alamos has outscored the other three district teams by a combined 36-0 in those four games.
To clinch its sixth consecutive district title, the Hilltoppers need only beat Capital Oct. 23. The Hilltoppers closed out the Jaguars (5-7 overall, 2-1 in 2-4A) early in their Oct. 6 meeting, also by a score of 10-0.
While another district title would guarantee Los Alamos a place in the Class 4A tournament — it’s a foregone conclusion the Hilltoppers will be invited to participate in the playoffs in the highly unlikely event they fail to win district — head coach Jiri Kubicek is looking for bigger things from his team.
“We need to win the rest of our games,” he said. “We don’t want to have any surprises. We need to take it one game at a time but we need to polish some of our stuff and make sure we’re where we’re supposed to be.”